Mermaids
by Owen Jarvis
Summary: Mulder and Scully journey to a small, seaside town to investigate sightings of mermaids


Standard Disclaimer: X-Files, Mulder, Scully, etc.. all belong to 

Fox and TenThirteen Productions, they are not mine. This is 

pure fiction and posted for fun, not profit. 

MERMAIDS 

It was a cold, dark, rainy day in Washington D.C. The rain was pounding on the pavement, children were splashing around in the puddles, and people with umbrellas quickly hurried along to their dry destination. In the FBI building, all the FBI agents were busily working on their cases, except for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They both worked on a secret project known as the X-files. They investigated UFOs, conspiracies, and paranormal phenomenon. They usually had a lot of work to do, except for today. Mulder and Scully couldn't seem to find any interesting cases. "Mulder, are we just going to sit here all day?" asked Scully in a serious tone. "I'm sure it would be a nice thing to do, but I don't think that Assistant Director Skinner would like that at all." "Hold on Scully," Mulder replied. "I'm trying to find just the right case we could work on." Scully sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "This is going to be a very long day..." Scully said to herself. All of a sudden the door burst open, surprising the agents. "AH!" Scully screamed as her chair toppled backwards. Assistant Director Walter Skinner stepped inside his office with a thick, manila colored file in his hands. "Are you all right, Agent Scully?" he asked with a smirk on his face. "I'm fine sir," she said as she brushed the dust off her suit, " you just surprised me a bit, that's all." "Anyway, I have a case for you to work on," said Skinner. "It's an X-file, and there's been a sighting of what seems to be a...mermaid. Well whatever it is, it's extremely vicious and has attacked a fisherman on the piers of a seaside town named Faulkton, Louisiana. I've been asked to send you both as soon as possible. When you get there, you will be met by the town sheriff, Sheriff Magona. I'll leave the rest to you agents." He set the case file on Mulder's desk and walked out of the office. Mulder looked at Scully. "The forecast for Louisiana looks good, so it will be good to get out of here," said Mulder. "Yea, I guess so," replied Scully as she put on her long trenchcoat and left Mulder's office. ******************************************************************************* By noon the next afternoon, Mulder and Scully were getting off the plane at the New Orleans Airport. They had had a long and tiring plan ride, especially since they had to sit in back of two young screaming kids the whole time. Mulder and Scully walked out of the terminal, and were met by the sheriff of Faulkton. He was a short, plump, gray-haired man. He seemed to be very solemn, and didn't seem to accept the agents with a great sense of enthusiasm. He stood in front of the agents with his arms crossed. "Agents Mulder and Scully, I presume?" asked the sheriff, his face not showing an inch of emotion. "Yes, we are," replied Mulder stretching his hand out to be shaked. The sheriff stared at Mulder's hand but didn't lift a finger to shake it. Mulder put his hand in his pocket and sighed. "Do you believe that there is a vicious mermaid or creature lurking around your town's sea waters?" asked Mulder, looking the sheriff right in the eye. "There are no such things as mermaids," replied the sheriff, "the reason why we brought you here was to disprove that theory. We aren't going to waste our time with this nonsense, or you can leave right now. Is that clear?" "Yes sir," replied Scully as she sighed deeply. "Follow me," said the sheriff in a low, monotonous voice. As the sheriff walked briskly ahead, Mulder and Scully walked behind him, looking at each other. "Is this the kind of fun case you thought it would be?" whispered Scully to Mulder. "Not with this kind of sheriff escorting us around everywhere," Mulder whispered. "Remind me, as soon as we get to the motel that we are renting a car for this trip." They both chuckled as they tried to catch up to the sheriff. Later that evening, when Mulder and Scully had rented 2 cars and settled in, they decided to start investigating as soon as possible. Mulder headed off toward the piers where the fishermen were attacked, and Scully decided to do an autopsy on the most recent victim. They would meet back at the hotel in about an hour where they would converse about their findings. They headed toward their rent-a-cars, happy that they didn't have to stick with the sheriff. As Scully waved goodbye to Mulder, he drove toward the piers of Faulkton not knowing what was in store for him. Agent Mulder arrived at the cluster of piers twenty minutes later. He got out of the car and headed toward pier 14, the pier on which the fisherman had been attacked. It was a dark, foggy night on the piers. Mulder was expecting the weather to be a lot better, but he shrugged it off. He was there to work, not to enjoy himself. He stepped on the wooden piers, and stepped under the yellow tape that read: CRIME SCENE. The pier seemed abandoned, except the elderly fisherman who sat with his fishing pole at the end of the pier. As Mulder walked toward the elderly man, he noticed the blood stained wooden planks that made up the pier. 'This mermaid definitely isn't related to the Little Mermaid...' Mulder thought to himself. He approached the elderly man, and tapped him on the back. "Excuse me, sir, this is a restricted crime scene," Mulder explained, "no civilians are allowed on this dock. Sir?" "The authorities have no interest in solving this case," replied the elderly man. "The case will be closed in a matter of days. The authorities are the people who are responsible for these attacks." "Excuse me?" Mulder asked. "Can you explain a little more on your statement?" "Who in God's name are you?" asked the elderly man. "Fox Mulder, FBI," Mulder said as he flipped out his FBI badge. "I'm here to solve the deaths of some local fishermen, witnesses claimed they were attacked by mermaids. Sir, I'm not here to harm anyone, I'm here solely to solve this case. Can you help me?" "How do I know I can trust you?" asked the elderly man. Mulder paused for a moment and sighed. "I specialize in these types of cases known as paranormal phenomenon," Mulder began. "My sister was abducted when I was a young boy, and that's what prompted me to investigate. Now sir, I assure you that I am only trying to benefit this situation." The old man stared into Mulder's brown eyes. All of a sudden his eyes found Mulder's gun. "Put that gun in the car," said the old man, "then and only then will I help you. Mulder rolled his eyes, and walked to the car. He threw the gun into Ford Taurus rent-a-car, and then jogged back to the old man, eager to hear the story. "Now can you help me?" asked Mulder. "I suppose I have a story that might help you," replied the old man. "Years back, when I was a working middle-aged man, I was driving on a seaside road when all of a sudden I heard a sharp, painful scream coming from an abandoned factory. I screeched on my brakes, and decided to pursue the sharp, eardrum piercing screams that were coming from the factory inside. I entered the factory totally unaware what I might see." "What did you see?" asked Mulder as he leaned toward the man in anticipation. "I discovered approximately 30 different tanks, all with one half human, half fish, you know them as mermaids," explained the elderly man. "All the mermaids were quiet and seemed to be sleeping. "But why was the government controlling the mermaids in tanks?" asked Mulder with a touch of curiosity in his voice. "Well the next thing I witnessed was unbelievable," explained the elderly man. "A man, dressed in a suit took some sort of syringe out of his pocket that held a bluish liquid inside of it. He reached into the tank, and punctured the mermaid's skin with it. At first, nothing happened, but after a while the mermaid started to shake violently. After a while she grew extremely aggressive. She was baring her teeth at the man, and trying to break the glass. I was so shocked at what was happening inside, that I didn't notice what was happening outside the factory. A group of men who had approached with their cars, started to surround me. The apparent leader was young, and tall. He asked me, 'What are you doing here? This is a restricted zone, you shouldn't be here.' I replied, 'I heard screaming from the factory, I thought there was trouble.' 'You were only getting yourself into a bigger mess than you've ever gotten into,' the man told me. 'You will now suffer the consequences.' The man and his group started enclosing around me, and then they started to attack me. After a while of kicking and punching me, the man said, 'You've never seen any of this. You were never here and if you tell anyone, you will be terminated.' Mulder looked at the elderly man. "Where is this factory?" asked Mulder. "It's on the outskirts of town, about 15 miles west of here, said the elderly man. "Thank you sir, we will try to get to the bottom of this," said Mulder. "I will now die because of this," replied the elderly man, "I suggest you leave before you get caught with this information." Mulder waved goodbye and then headed toward his rent-a-car. 'I have to find where they store the mermaids,' thought Mulder. The old man watched as Mulder got in the car, and sped off toward the motel where they had been staying. The old man sighed as he started to get a bite on his line. He started to pull, but then stopped. All of a sudden a pair of cold, wet hands popped up at the man. He screamed as he got pulled under the water. Almost immediately after he was pulled the water went from clear, to blood red. ******************************************************************************* Meanwhile at the motel, Scully waited patiently with her arms folded on the bed. Mulder was supposed to meet her 15 minutes ago, and she was starting to get worried. 'What could he possibly be doing at the crime scene that would take this long?' she thought. She sipped her warm cup of Colombian Coffee she had gotten at the police station. All of a sudden the door burst open and Mulder came in. In surprise, Scully tipped her coffee by accident, spilling it all over her suit. "Mulder! Do you have to burst in like that?" asked Scully. "That's the second time that's happened today..." "I'm sorry!" Mulder apologized as he snickered to himself. "Well you'll be surprised about what I found in the dead fisherman," Scully stated. "In his blood was found some sort of venom, or poison. I couldn't determine if that was the cause of death, or if it was the huge tear in his torso. I also discovered a large claw found among his insides. Take a look for yourself." Scully reached into her bag and handed Mulder the plastic bag marked: EVIDENCE. Mulder looked inside the bag, and was shocked to find a 4 inch claw. He looked at the object, then to Scully. "What do you think about this?" asked Mulder. "I suppose what killed these men was probably some sort of sea creature," replied Scully. "I don't think so..."Mulder said, "I think it's something much bigger than this. Come on Scully, we're going to go on a little road trip to an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town. I'll tell you my accounts on the way over." Scully followed Mulder out of the motel room as he walked toward the car. They got in the car, then drove toward the outskirts of town, toward the factory the elderly man was talking about. Mulder thought he would certainly learn of all the answers he needed to know in this building. About a half an hour later driving on the seaside road, they caught sight of the abandoned factory. Everything seemed deserted around it. There were no cars in the road, no houses, and the dock across the street was completely empty. The building looked completely deserted from the outside, but Mulder knew that the inside would be different. They stepped out of the car and looked around the premises. Nothing seemed to be strange or unusual about the frontier around the old factory. Mulder took Scully by the hand and walked toward the gigantic factory. He opened the sliding doors and looked in. It was empty. There was absolutely nothing inside. "There must be something in this building," explained Mulder, "the old man described it so well... he couldn't possibly be lying. There must be something inside this old factory that tells us something." Mulder ran up a flight of stairs at the side of the room while Scully examined the bottom floor. She knew that Mulder had his wild ideas, but he was always right. She took a close look around and discovered a notebook that must have been left behind. The notebook read: 

May 18, 1968- The mermaids have been extremely calm today since their capture yesterday. I reckon that we will start the tests as soon as possible. May 25, 1968- We started injecting the venom into their fins and arms. They reacted very violently to these injections. They began to peek their heads about the surface of the water and gave off a piercing scream. A strange man heard the screams and witnessed our tests. This drove us to threaten him, and severely beat him. He will not tell anyone, and if he does he will be automatically terminated. June 4, 1968- The mermaids began to adjust to the venom injections, and are starting to grow very fierce. Our plan for using them as a biological weapon will succeed if they adjust to a killing mode. We are trying as much as possible to get them to kill everything in their path. They will be of great use if we go to war with the Soviet Union. The U.S. Military is waiting for us. June 22, 1968- The mermaids have been successfully transformed into what we are calling our "poison beauties". We should be able to hand them over to the U.S. military sometime soon now. The mermaids are becoming very violent and trying to break the glass. We know they can't break it because it is unbreakable. We're way too smart for them. June 23, 1968- We have had a magnificent breakthrough today. The mermaids are learning to speak English! We have installed waterproof microphones into their tanks, and they are slowly talking to us. We think that they have picked it up through us talking. This is a good thing, now we can tell them when to attack, and when not to. They are also beginning to control they're anger. June 25, 1968- Something terrible has happened! One of the mermaids has attacked one of our scientists. While he was feeding them some raw fish, the mermaid jumped and pulled him into the tank. She demanded for them to be released back into their habitat or else he would die. We refused, and as a result she snapped his neck and ate his remains. It looks like the rest of the mermaids are revolting against us too. We will be a lot more careful next time. June 31, 1968- Another scientist has died. This time a different mermaid jumped up and bit him. This left a trail of venom into his bloodstream, which caused him to die. We have all decided to release the mermaids into the ocean nearby, and hopefully they will go about unnoticed. We will keep this factory under surveillance by a mini camera, just in case someone suspects something. ~ Sheriff Magona 

Scully was shocked as she read this. 'Mulder was right,' she thought, 'the tests on the mermaids actually happened.' Mulder entered the room and walked toward Scully. "Scully, there's nothing here," he explained, "the man was probably crazy, I shouldn't have...." "Wait Mulder," interrupted Scully, "the old man was right. The mermaids were test subjects back in 1968. I have the journal that says so." Scully handed Mulder the journal and sighed. After Mulder was finished he was amazed. "The sheriff is behind this?" asked Mulder. All of a sudden the doors flung open creating a sudden sharp noise. Scully jumped with shock as Sheriff Magona came bursting through the door. He aimed his gun at the two agents, and walked slowly toward them. "Freeze, don't move," instructed the sheriff, "or I'll blow your brains out. Drop the journal, and put your hands where I can see them. Slowly turn around and don't make any sudden moves or you're dead." The agents did as instructed. They didn't want to question a 9mm gun pointed at their heads. "Sheriff, you conducted these experiments against the mermaids?" questioned Scully. "You were making a bio-weapon? Why did you decide to experiment on these mermaids?" "Well since your both going to be mermaid food in a minute, I might as well tell you what happened and why," the sheriff said with a sly grin on his face. "It was the early 1930s and the Russian scientists had discovered the science of genetic engineering. They began to conduct experiments on innocent human beings, and trying to create a fish/human hybrid. Their experiments killed hundreds, but they continued the experiments. One lucky day, the experiment actually succeeded, and they made a complete fish/human hybrid. Secretly, they made thousands of innocent humans become mermaids(or mermen), and they began to colonize at the bottom of the Atlantic. Now it was not until the mid 1960s when the US discovered of the Russians plans. At the time, the US was in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, so we decided to turn their plans against them. We decided to create a bio-weapon with these mermaids against the Russians. At the time I was only a young man, 25 years old, but I was put in charge of the operation. We decided to conduct the tests in a rural town, in an abandoned building. Faulkton was the perfect town, and it was by the ocean so it would be easy access. As you probably read in the journal, we conducted the tests, but then had to let them go due to the revolting. After we let them go, they started to colonize near the shores. Now their way of revenge is taking any innocent human life away. Do you have anymore questions before I feed you to the mermaids?" "How did you hide the attacks of the mermaids all these years from the FBI, and the CIA?" asked Mulder. "Simple," smiled the sheriff, "all I had to do was not report any of the deaths. The deaths were ruled out as a drowning. "Then who called the FBI?" asked Mulder. "Probably that old man that was lurking around the piers," said Sheriff Magona. He was the only other person who knew about the project. Now it's time to die, step slowly outside and walk across the street to the ocean bank. I'm sure the 'poison beauties' will be swimming around." He laughed with all his might as the agents did what they were told. They stepped outside into the fresh air and they made their way across the deserted road over to the deserted pier. As Mulder and Scully stepped onto the pier, they saw the deadly mermaids in the water. The mermaids had no hair, ruby red eyes, and sharp canine teeth. They seemed to be waiting for a fresh warm meal. Mulder felt bad for the creatures. They had been genetically altered to be fish, then transformed to be dangerous. He felt bad about all the innocent lives that were taken because of this project, and soon to be their own death. All of a sudden Mulder looked at Scully with the eyes like he was going to do something crazy. He suddenly swung around and hit the sheriff with all his might. He fell on the hard, wooden dock, as his gun and journal slid out of his hands into the murky water. The agents pulled out their guns and pointed them at the sheriff. "Now who's the big guy now?" Mulder asked with a big goofy smile on his face. "We're going to expose this conspiracy once and for all. I have a feeling we're going to get a raise Scully." Mulder smiled at Scully as she took her handcuffs out. She snapped them on Sheriff Magona. Scully stood the sheriff up and stuffed him into the back seat of her car. She had a feeling that everything was going to be okay. ******************************************************************************** Agents Mulder and Scully sat in front Assistant Director Skinner's desk with satisfied looks on their faces. They had waited for this moment. They handed in their field report on the activities they investigated to AD Skinner 2 days ago, and now they were ready to get rewarded for their hard work. Scully sat in anticipation. "Sir, did they find the mermaids? Did they prove our work to be conclusive?" asked Scully. "Actually, I have something to tell you both," said Skinner. "The shores of Faulkton, where you claimed that the mermaids were colonizing...it was bombed. Whatever lived there is now dead. The piers were bombed, and it looks like nothing could have survived the attack. As for the factory you said where the tests were conducted...that was also found in ruins. Therefore, we have no further evidence to conduct an investigation. Sheriff Magona will be released from maximum security prison tomorrow. You are dismissed." "Sir, that can't be!" Mulder shouted. "We've worked long and hard on this case, to reveal the conspiracy of using mermaids as a bio-weapon. You can't just stop the investigation because one area of the shore was bombed! There must be some at the bottom of the ocean, I just know it! "AGENT MULDER, that will be all," said Skinner in a firm voice. "Come on, Mulder," said Scully, "let's get out of here. Mulder and Scully walked out of Skinner's office in disappointment. Mulder was extremely disappointed that they weren't believed. "Scully, why does someone always try to sabotage our work?" asked Mulder. "We were so close to exposing this conspiracy." "Mulder, just feel happy that we helped stop the killings," explained Scully. "There would have been many more deaths if it wasn't for us." "The people I really feel bad for are those mutant mermaids," said Mulder, "and that's why I wanted to expose this conspiracy. I wanted to get revenge for what the mermaids wanted. They were innocent human beings. They shouldn't have been treated that way." "Well, they did escape, didn't they?" said Scully. " Their revolt was successful in letting them free. Mulder, we've had a long week. How about we go home, rest, and then we can come back on Monday morning and handle a new case." "Sounds mighty good to me," replied Mulder, as they walked down the hallway toward the exit door of the FBI building. 


End file.
